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Disposition of FAA Comments to ACP/WG-1-12

EUROCAE ED-136/137/138 May 19, 2010

AERONAUTICAL COMMUNICATIONS PANEL (ACP)

WORKING GROUP I - INTERNETWORKING Internet Communications Services

Paris, France, May 19th

– 21st 2010

(12th

Meeting)

Disposition of FAA Comments and Changes

To ED-136/137/138

Presented to EUROCAE

At the WG67-25 Meeting

Bucharest, April 2010

Presented by

Dieter Thigpen

Program Manager, Air/Ground Communications

ATC Communications Services,

Air Traffic Organization

Federal Aviation Administration


EUROCAE ED-136/137/138 May 19, 2010

Disposition of FAA Comments and Changes

To ED-136/137/138

Presented to EUROCAE

At the WG67-25 Meeting

Bucharest, April 2010

Executive Summary

The FAA recently identified Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) as one of the

technologies of choice for the future evolution of the U.S. next generation voice

communications system. Before committing to a detailed system architecture and

protocol portfolio as envisioned by EUROCAE WG67 ED-136/137/138, the FAA

conducted a review and assessment of these specifications.

To accomplish this review, the FAA pursued two independent paths: an internal review

and a Request for Information (RFI) to industry. A number of FAA groups were

involved in the internal review and nine vendors responded to the RFI.

The information collected was analyzed and consolidated into a list of twenty six issues

grouped in five categories:

• Four issues requiring minor changes to specifications

• Eleven FAA requirements not addressed by the specifications

• Four possible new FAA requirements that are being internally validated by FAA

• Four areas requiring clarifications, not necessarily changes to the specifications

• Three FAA operational requirements deemed of significant impact to the

specifications.

FAA representatives presented these issues at the EUROCAE WG67 25th

meeting in

Bucharest this past April. In two very constructive and productive sessions, FAA and

EUROCAE representatives reached agreement on all issues under consideration, as

follows:

• Changes to ED-137 Part I (Radio) and Part II (Telephone) to be introduced in

time for WG-I -12 meeting.

• The creation of a U.S. specific Addendum to ED-136 to be developed by the

FAA.

Agreement was also reached on the materials to be incorporated into DOC 9896 Edition

2:

• DOC 9896 Edition 2 - Part I - Detailed Technical Specifications:

o ED-137 Part I (Radio)

o ED-137 Part II (Telephone)


EUROCAE ED-136/137/138 May 19, 2010

• DOC 9896 Edition 2 - Part III - Guidance Material:

o ED-136, to be included as an European-specific ATM System Operational

and Technical Requirements Document

o U.S.-specific Addendum to ED-136 to be prepared by the FAA and

available in the second half of 2011.

o ED-137 Parts III and IV

o ED-138 (Including Part I, Table 2)

Consistent with these agreements, the FAA is currently collecting and validating

information in a number of areas:

• Four possibly new A/G Comm requirements.

• Legacy telco interfaces and protocols.

• Network Latency and Quality-of-Service (QoS) characterization of the Future

Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI) network.

This data will be eventually part of the U.S. specific Addendum to ED-136.

Additionally, the new FAA VHF/UHF A/G Radio Specification for terminal radios

procurement was recently modified to incorporate a VoIP capability consistent with the

latest version of ED-137 Part I.

In the near future, the FAA will:

• Continue working on reviewing and validating ED-136/137/138 in cooperation

and coordination with EUROCAE WG67.

• Incorporate references to ICAO ATM VoIP documents in the NVS

Specification.

• Develop and integrate an end-to-end VoIP Test Bed at the FAA Technical

Center, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

• Continue participating in VOTE, WG67, SESAR, and ETSI Plugtest activities.

• Conduct an independent FAA VoIP Interoperability Test at the FAA Technical

Center:

o Similar to the Plugtests already conducted by ETSI,

o Tentatively scheduled for May 2011,

o Intended to validate the latest updates to ED-137 Parts I and II, and

o All vendors will be invited to participate.


EUROCAE ED-136/137/138 May 19, 2010

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